Pynchon mention in Vollmann review

[Tom Beshear]

I read Europe Central when it came out and I recall the reference to the parabola. Made me smile. EC is one of Vollmann's masterpieces. The highest compliment I can give is that it does not read like a book written by an American.
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Christopher Simon 
  To: Kai Frederik Lorentzen ; pynchon -l 
  Sent: Saturday, April 13, 2013 9:20 AM
  Subject: RE: Pynchon mention in Vollmann review


  I haven't read Europe Central yet, but Vollmann is one of my favorite authors and some of his other books have some interesting parallels to Pynchon's work. I wouldn't be surprised if, considering GR and EC deal with the same war in, I gather, a somewhat similar episodic fashion, there were such allusions.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  From: Kai Frederik Lorentzen
  Sent: ‎4/‎13/‎2013 6:59 AM
  To: pynchon -l
  Subject: Pynchon mention in Vollmann review



  In today's FAZ (p. 37) is a review of the German edition of Vollmann's Europe Central; 
  there it says: 

  "Es [the book] ist erkennbar eine Lebensliebe von William T. Vollmann, ein manisches Stück Literatur, das eher als mit Littels 'Wohlgesinnten' mit Thomas Pynchons 'Die Enden der Parabel' [GR] oder der 'Ästhetik des Widerstands' von Peter Weiss zu vergleichen ist, weil auch in diesen Romanen trotz der überreichen Materialsammlung jeweils ein strenges formales Prinzip waltet. (Und wer in sein Buch so viele Raketendiskurse oder auch einmal die Bemerkung einflicht: 'Wie also war er? Ich sehe in ihm die zentrale Figur einer Parabel', der verweist sehr deutlich auf die Leitmetaphorik von Pynchon)."

  There certainly is a "formal principle" at work in Gravity's Rainbow. But is it "rigid"? I don't think so. And are there really "that many rocket discourses" in Europe Central that they must be understood as an allusion to Pynchon? Haven't read Vollmann's book yet, so I cannot judge this. Anyone? What can be said, once more, is that Gravity's Rainbow is by now definitely part of the German canon of Weltliteratur.
     

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